This patent is directed to drug delivery devices, and in particular to a single-use, disposable drug delivery device.
Injectable drugs are conventionally administered through the use of a needle attached to a syringe. The needle is inserted to the appropriate depth (e.g., subcutaneous, intradermal, or intramuscular), and the plunger is moved within the cylinder to eject the drug from the cylinder into the patient. Many times, the patient will be required to self-administer a drug, in which case the patient is responsible for filling the syringe with the drug, and then injecting the drug into themselves.
When dealing with a disease, such as diabetes, a patient may have to administer a series of injections throughout the course of the day. For example, the patient may have to administer a number of fast-acting insulin injections before meals, as well as a long-acting insulin injection before bedtime. There are issues that can arise when this many injections are administered in a day, including the potential for the patient to lose track of or forget to administer one or more of the injections.
To address the issues posed by having to self-administer a series of injections throughout the day, patients often resort to pumps or automatic injection devices to eliminate the need to manually keep track of the injections. These pumps may be implanted surgically, although certain autoinjectors are designed to be strapped on or attached externally to the patient. The pump or automatic injector may have a microprocessor that follows an internal program to administer a drug (e.g., insulin) to the patient throughout the course of the day. Typically, at least the control portion of the pump or injector is intended to be reused, and often is detachable from the portions of the system that are injected into the patient.
As set forth in more detail below, the present disclosure sets forth a drug delivery device embodying advantageous alternatives to the conventional devices discussed above, which drug delivery device can be a disposable, single-use drug delivery device.